New Hampshire passes same-sex marriage

New Hampshire legislators just passed a marriage equality bill. The measure passed the state senate 14-10 and the house of representatives 198-176. The bill now goes to Governor John Lynch for his signature. Since Lynch asked for changes to include religious liberty language, he is expected to sign it. New Hampshire will become the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage.

So who's next? New York? New Jersey? Rhode Island? Any place outside of New England?

UPDATE 5:30pm: Governor John Lynch has signed the legislation. Same-sex marriage is now legal in New Hampshire.

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Rhode Island won't be next. The second most powerful person in Rhode Island is the bishop, and Gov. Carcieri is exactly what the American public feared of JFK in the 60s - someone who answers to the Church before the people.

New York and New Jersey are good bets, Maryland isn't out of the question, and Washington and Oregon should be on the shortlist. I can't help but wonder about Illinois - is there enough support from the north to make it work in the south?

Oh yes it is, Alex. Just watch...now that SSM has been won in the state, the major state LGBT orgs will celebrate their victory and then quietly disappear, leaving transfolks twisting in the wind, just like they have in Mass. and so many other states.

Think about it: In all of the celebrations, have you heard even a single mention from any major G&L org or activist about the denial of rights to transpeople in that state? Even one? I certainly haven't, not that I actually expect it, mind you.

No, I fully expect that this will be the last we hear of NH from any of these folks, for a very long time at minimum, if ever again at all. After all, the rich gays have already won their rights so why should they give a shit about the rest of us?

NH trans people aren't going away anytime soon. Yes, while celebrating the marriage victory, I'm also still devastated over the failure of HB415. We have many allies who are committed to working with us until ALL have full equality.

Good luck with that. Personally, I expect that while NH transfolks won't be going anywhere, it's going to become very lonely out there on the front lines very quickly now that all that money and support for SSM has slithered back to DC.

Seriously though, I did hear from some people that because the two bills happened simultaneously, people didn't devote enough energy as was needed for the anti discrimination bill. Speaking as someone who worked hard for both, my joy for winning the marriage bill was very much tempered by disappointment over losing HB415.

I am pleased to see that civil marriage equality has once again emerged victorious, the latest example being New Hampshire. New England has become the leader of the nation in this issue, as it was when slavery was still legal and the New England abolitionists were active.

The problem is that this comes on the heels of having the inclusion of gender identity and expression in New Hampshire's nondiscrimination law voted down by a margin of 24 to nothing. I fear that, given past history regarding the LGB(t) community, gender variant people in New Hampshire, along with those other states that have passed same sex marriage equality before passing inclusive nondiscrimination law, will never get equal protection until such time that the Federal government passes some version of the Employment Non Discrimination Act. Of course, that is unless gender identity and expression are once again removed for "political " reasons.

New Hampshire joins Massachusetts and Connecticut as states that allows same sex couples to marry while still allowing harmful discrimination against gender variant citizens by not having inclusive nondiscrimination law. New York State may be close behind in joining this less than stellar category. I am losing hope that I will see equal protections for gender variant people within my lifetime. Will it happen? When?

I just received an E-mail for Joe Solmonese congratulating the NH gays of winning same-sex marriage. One of the paragraphs, he says, "Of course, New Hampshire is not the end of our fight for marriage equality. We'll continue our work to expand equality in states like New York, where a vote on marriage equality could come within a few weeks. We're also working to protect our recent victory in Maine against a Prop. 8-style campaign and to win back marriage in California."

There is nothing in this about working for other forms of "equality." Nothing in there that could have said, Even as we celebrate the equality in marriage, we are sadden to see that New Hampshire rejected employment equality for transgender people. They need to revisit this important issue so all LGBT people in their state will be equal."

He said nothing of that. As Becky implied, this is nothing more then a bunch of rich, white gay men patting themselves on their backs, while pissing on transgender people yet again. Ask us if we're surprised at HRC's callous response.